The significant development of electrical equipment designed to be installed inside the patient's body to compensate for a defect in a natural organ, requires being able to transmit either the power required by this equipment from a power source outside the body to the inside of the body, or to collect electrical information originating from the defective natural organ and/or electrical equipment designed to compensate for these defects.
For this electrical implanted equipment, power is currently provided by three main methods. A first method consists of using implanted batteries that directly supply the electrical implanted medical devices. However, implanted batteries are insufficient to provide long lasting power, especially for implanted medical devices requiring substantial electrical power, such as implanted ventricular assist devices or total artificial hearts, to name only two applications concerning cardio-thoracic surgery.
Another solution is based on the principle of non-invasive transcutaneous electrical conduction, by induction or transmission of electromagnetic microwaves. Once again, this type of connection has limited possibilities for use and is therefore somewhat restricted, since the transfer of high power energy requires antennas of a size that are poorly compatible with a normal life.
The third method resides in percutaneous transmission, which allows connecting the electrical implanted medical device to an electrical device outside the patient, which has the advantage of offering more varied uses, especially for data transfer. Indeed, in addition to their power supply, more and more implanted devices transmit or receive a certain number of signals necessary or useful for their operation.
Such percutaneous transmission can be done directly by passing a cable through the skin, or by means of a permanent percutaneous electrical connection using a percutaneous implanted device (such as a socket) for an electrical connection between the inside and the outside of the patient's body.
A goal of the present invention is to propose a novel system permitting percutaneous electrical connection between an internal electrical device implanted in the body of an animal, in particular in a human being, and an external electrical device, such as, for example, a power source.
In particular, a goal of the present invention is to propose an electrical connection system for percutaneous connection that can be used as needed, without requiring a permanent connection with the external electrical device.
Another goal of the present invention is to propose an electrical connection system for a percutaneous connection that can be used as an emergency connection, to replace a defective main electrical connection, for example.